Still Life: A History

Harry N. Abrams, 1999-06-01T00:00:01Z. hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 1999 Harry N. Abrams (New York), a massive 11 1/4 x 13 inches tall x 1 1/2 inches thick red cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, gilt lettering to spine, grey endpapers, copiously illustrated with mostly full color photographs and reproductions of artwork, index, 419 pp. Very slight bumping to the lower tip of the rear cover. Otherwise, a near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a like dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. Note that this is a heavy and oversized book, so additional postage will be required for international or priority orders. ~SP32~ [8.5P] Full of new information and beautiful illustrations, this fascinating history of the European still life from the ancient world to the twentieth century is a pleasure to read and a joy to look at. Readers will learn about the still life's origin in Greco-Roman images of xenia, or 'hospitality gifts,' and how these evocative pictures evolved into the superb trompe l'oeil still-life paintings of the Roman Empire. The book continues with the still life's re-emergence in sixteenth-century Europe and its new associations with the cycles of nature and with Christian moralism, and follows its development to the pure still lifes of the eighteenth century and later. This astonishing pageant encompasses the meticulous realism of the Old Masters and the powerful forms of Courbet and his fellow Realists. It continues with the gorgeous visions of Monet and Renoir, the dynamic compositions of Cezanne and Picasso, and the Pop witticisms of Tom Wesselmann and Roy Lichtenstein. Taken together it is one of the great epic stories of Western art history.